Nigeria Air Force (NAF) has acquired honker scorpion vehicles as part of the latest move towards coping with the dynamism of emerging security threats, especially, the war against Boko Haram.
NAF said that it is adopting the new concept of base defense to protect its air assets and critical installations, saying that besides reorganizing, retraining and re-equipping the Regiment Specialty to effectively defend NAF Bases against attacks, the Service has also employed the use of Closed Circuit Camera to provide surveillance around perimeter fences of NAF Bases while monitoring the entire Base from the Base Defence Coordination Centre.
Under the new concept, effort is geared towards expanding the Regiment Specialty to be able to take over all ground defence duties with a view to securing NAF Bases and critical assets.
A statement from NAF said that the acquisition of 10 specialized Honker Scorpion Vehicles is in furtherance of this objective by providing guards with the capacity to respond quickly to security breaches.
The vehicles possess armoured capability thus offering additional level of protection to guards. Speaking during Commissioning ceremony, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Abayomi Olonisakin said that the induction of the Honker vehicles will enhance the capability of NAF Regiment personnel to effectively contribute to the collective efforts at addressing the security challenges facing the nation, adding: “the procurement was a testimony of the importance the NAF attached to the protection of its critical assets and personnel.”
Meanwhile, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar has reiterated that the nation and NAF in particular, cannot afford to lose its critical assets to the activities of insurgents, terrorists and militants.
Air Marshal Abubakar said that NAF is committed to adopt all necessary security measures to forestall occurrence of past mistakes.
He said that the deployment of the Honker vehicles is intended to significantly enhance the NAF Base Defence System as well as security of key and vulnerable points around the nation including the airports.
Another major advantage of the Honker vehicles is that it helps to eliminate the system hitherto in place where guards were made stationary at their guard posts. [myad]
